On Wednesday morning I was at a stoplight in downtown Des Moines and looked in the rearview mirror to see a woman absolutely dominating car karaoke. She was loving life and singing her heart out to the windshield. No idea where she was going or what was next on her agenda but if I was a betting man, she crushed the day. (It did remind me how much I love Carpool Karaoke clips with James Coden).

Mornings are an interesting topic to broach with people. Some are early risers and are running right from when they get out of bed. Others scrape and claw to get out of bed early to throw on a pot of coffee and then when that caffeine hits it’s time to roll. Then there are plenty that if you mention the word morning, it’s like nails on a chalkboard.

I realize when you flip on a motivational video there often is a reference to the importance of getting up early and getting a jump start on the day. I’m that type of person. I love the early morning quietness when I can take time to gather my thoughts and invest time in my priorities before anyone in the house is up. That works for me. That doesn’t work for everyone, nor should we try to fit everyone into one box of what a successful morning looks like.

Getting a jump start on the day looks different for everyone. There’s no one routine that leads to success, regardless of what social media preaches. But there is a routine that can be successful for you. It should be authentic to your priorities. Your values. The way your body and mind best respond to jump starting the day for your authentic success.

I have a feeling you already have part of your recipe for success in the morning. You’ve experienced enough of the good mornings when you feel ready to go combined with enough bad mornings where you’re wondering how you’ll crawl out of bed and get on with the day. You’ve lived enough mornings – now it’s time to be intentional with your reflection and identify what’s worked for your body and mind to get the day off to a great start.

To help add to what you’ve already learned about yourself, let’s also explore some ideas that may help us think of mornings a little differently:

Retrograde analysis: sounds complicated. It’s not. Retrograde analysis is understanding what you’re working towards to then analyze backwards what needs to happen to meet the desired result. If you’re leaving your house at 8am, retrograde analysis looks at everything you want to accomplish by 8 and then works backward to figure out the timing of how the morning needs to play out. You may have to prioritize getting a little work done, exercising, taking the dog for a walk, making breakfast for the kids, packing up your lunch, getting showered and dressed, etc. If you have specific priorities for the morning, retrograde analysis gives you a good idea when you need to wake up and how much time to allocate for each priority.

Know your priorities in the morning: retrograde analysis can only work if you know what your priorities are for the morning. Establish a clear understanding of what you expect yourself to accomplish in the morning. Explore how to answer, what’s a successful morning to me?

Win the night before: how do you set yourself up for success the night before? If you’re working out the next morning, do you already have your workout planned? If you’re planning for time to eat a good breakfast, do you have the right food in your fridge and cupboard? If you’re dressing up, are your clothes ready to go? All of it sounds simple but it can make a big impact making the most out of your morning when your mind has already prepared the night before.

Change the narrative you’re anchored to: “I’m not a morning person.” It may be true now, but it isn’t the narrative you have to anchor yourself too. Even us early risers struggle many days getting out of bed ready to attack the day. But you must keep challenging yourself into becoming a morning person when you know you have a set of priorities you want to accomplish in the morning. You can shift your mind’s focus from the comfort of your bed to the importance of carrying out promises of your priorities in the morning. It’s not easy. But if we keep channeling our energy and thoughts to our priorities, the spark is easier to start.

What works for you to create a successful morning? What else would you add to exploring what an authentically successful morning would look like?

Take your step: explore the perspectives listed above to explore what an authentically successful morning may be for you. Start this week and just focus one morning at a time. What does success look like tomorrow morning to jump start the day? You most likely already have a lot of the recipe for morning success. Now’s the time to try it with more consistency and intentionality.